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Reverend Anna H. Shaw 1841 ~ 1919
Reverend Anna H. Shaw
Mrs. Anna H. Shaw was born in New
Castle-on-Tyne, England, on the fourteenth of February, 1847.
Her descent is interesting as illustrating the force of
heredity. Her grandmother refused to pay tithes to the Church of
England and year after year allowed her goods to be seized and
sold for taxes. She sat in the door knitting and denouncing the
law while the sale went on in the street. Her granddaughter
evidently inherited from that heroic ancestor her sense of the
injustice of taxation without representation.
Mrs. Shaw's parents came to America when she was four years old,
and after living four years in Massachusetts they moved to the
then unsettled part of Michigan where the young girl encountered
all the hardships of pioneer life. She was, however, a child of
strong individuality and those pioneer days were an inspiration
to her. She may be said to have been self-educated, for her
schooling consisted in making herself master of every book and
paper that fell in her way. At fifteen years of age she began to
teach, remaining a teacher for five years. When about
twenty-four years old, despite her descent from a family of
English Unitarians, she became a convert to Methodism and joined
the Methodist Church.
Her ability as a speaker was soon recognized, and in 1873 the
District Conference of the Methodist Church in her locality
voted unanimously to grant her a local preacher's license. This
was renewed annually for eight years. In 1873 she had entered
Albion College, Michigan, and in 1875 she entered the
theological department of the Boston University, from which she
graduated with honor in 1878. She worked her way through college
and while in the theological school she was constantly worn with
hard work, studying on weekdays and preaching on Sundays. At
length when her health was becoming seriously impaired a
philanthropic woman offered to pay her the price of a sermon
every Sunday during the remainder of her second year if she
would omit the preaching and take the day for rest That help was
accepted and afterwards when Miss Shaw was earning a salary and
wished to return the money she was bidden to pass it on to aid
in the education of some other struggling girl, which she did.
She often says that when she was preaching those Sundays while
in college she never knew whether she would be paid with a
bouquet or a greenback.
After graduation she became pastor of a church in East Dennis,
on Cape Cod, where she remained seven years. She had been asked
there merely to supply their pulpit until they secured a regular
minister, but they were so well satisfied that they made no
further effort to obtain a pastor and for six years she preached
twice every Sunday in her own church in the morning; and in the
afternoon in the Congregational Church. During her pastorate in
East Dennis she applied to the New England Methodist Episcopal
Conference for ordination, but though she passed the best
examination of any candidate that year, ordination was refused
her on account of her sex. The case was appealed to the general
conference in Cincinnati in 1880 and the refusal was confirmed.
Miss Shaw then applied for ordination to the Methodist
Protestant Church and received it on the twelfth of October,
1880, being the first woman to be ordained in that denomination.
But her remarkable mind was never satisfied, and she sought
still further to break down the limitations sex had placed upon
her, so she supplemented her theological course with one in
medicine and receiving the degree of M.D., from the Boston
University. But becoming more and more interested in practical
reform she finally resigned her position in East Dennis and
became a lecturer for the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage
Association.
After entering the general lecture field and becoming widely and
favorably known as an elegant speaker on reform topics^ she was
appointed national superintendent of franchise in the Women's
Christian Temperance Union. Soon after, however, at the urgent
request of leading suffragists, she resigned this office and
accepted in place that of national lecturer for the National
American Women's Suffrage Association, of which, in 1892 she was
elected vice-president at large.
Her old parishioners at times have reproached her for no longer
devoting herself to preaching the Gospel but she replies that in
advocating the franchisement of women, the temperance movement
and other reforms, she is teaching applied Christianity and that
she exchanged the pulpit where she preached twice a week for the
platform where she may preach every day and often three times on
Sunday.
She is indeed one of the most eloquent, witty and popular
speakers in the lecture field. Her face is very beautiful, even
in its aging lines, and she is possessed of the most remarkable
personal magnetism, a magnificent voice and great power of
pointed argument. Much of her strength and force and thought of
expression are believed to result from the experiences of her
pioneer life in Michigan, and her power of moving audiences from
the touch of humanity which came to her while practicing
medicine in the city of Boston. She is believed to be the first
woman to have the double distinction of the titles Reverend, and
M.D. Her family were opposed to her studying for the ministry,
on the ground that she would be a disgrace to them if she
persisted in such an unheard of coarse but it may be added that
her career has effectually reconciled them to that "disgrace."
Dr. Shaw has spoken before many state legislatures and several
times before committees in both houses. Her appearance in
Washington as presiding officer of the Woman's Suffrage
Convention in 1910 made many converts to the cause of equal
suffrage from the ranks of national legislators. In appearing
before the joint committee of senators and representatives and
in the open-air meetings, in which she was the moving spirit on
this occasion, her splendid characteristic of keen humor and
ready wit enabled her to carry her points where logic alone
would have failed.
Women of
America
Source: The Part Taken by Women in
American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle
Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.
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